How Does Mental Health Affect Childhood Development?

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It is well known that childhood development can be affected by several different factors. Many have conducted studies and examined research on the different factors that affect childhood development, and some factors have been researched more than others. Mental health, although not always consider, takes on a major role. Mental health disorders are common all throughout the United States and other countries. In the U.S. alone it is estimated that 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older which is about one in four adults, suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year (Kessler et al., 2005). When applied to the U.S. Census population estimate for ages 18 and older, this translates to 80 million people. Nearly half with any mental …show more content…
Over the years, a question in research has been how parents mental state influence the behavior and development of the child. The research that has been conducted has shown that children who have a parent with a mental illness are at significantly greater risk for multiple psychosocial problems (Beardslee et al., 1998). Studies have shown that the child of mentally ill parents have higher rates of psychiatric diagnoses in childhood and are more likely to show developmental delays, lower academic competence, and difficulty with social relationships. These offspring are more likely to have mental health problems in adolescence and adulthood (Beardslee et al, 1998). Approximately half of the men and women in the United States report a lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorder, and one-third report the prevalence of at least one disorder in the previous 12 months. Two-thirds of these women and over half of these men are parents (Kessler et al., 2005). Because a significant number of children are exposed to parental mental disorders, researchers within the past several decades have done research on the effects of parental mental health problems on a child’s functioning and …show more content…
Research has showed that children of parents with mental health disorders are at greater risk for mental disorders compared to children from familes with parents who do not have mental disorders. It has been reported that between 25-50% of these children will experience some level of mental disorder in their lifetimes, compared with 10-20% of children whose parents are not affected by mental illness (Beardslee, 1998). In one of the first studies designed to examine the effects of parental mental disorders on children, researcher Beardslee followed a sample of children ages 6 to 19 over the course of four years. During the time of the initial assessment, 30% of the children with a parent who has a mental disorder met criteria for at least one episode of an affective disorder during their lifetime, compared with just 2% of the children of parents without disorders. At the 4-year follow-up, greater rates of disorder continued to be observed in the child of parents with a mental disorder were at 26% compared to the children of parents without a mental disorder which was at 10%. In addition, children of parents with mental disorders experienced episodes of longer time frames and earlier onset and had a greater number of double diagnoses compared to the children of parents without mental
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